Willy was cool. Was the first thing that went through my mind when looking at the letter in my mail.

  I watered my parsnips, then headed to the town. No one was coming out of their houses, so I checked every trash bin I could. Like any proper Stardew Valley player would, of course. To my surprise, I found cookies and a carp surprise – perfectly fresh and clean. How? Who cares. Then, I went to the beach.

  Now, I stood before the man, with the fresh smell of the sea reaching my nose, overlooking the vast expanse of blue, simply enjoying the beautiful nature in the morning. Willy looked like a man in his fifties, with a large brown beard, and like a proper fisherman. He did smell of fish as well.

  “Ahoy there, young buck!” he called out to me with a smile. “Heard there was a newcomer in town. Good to finally meet ya.”

  “Yep. Hey there, Willy.”

  “I like that attitude,” he chuckled.

  It felt strange to talk to him. Technically, I already knew him from my time playing, but now I was seeing him in the flesh. Yesterday, I was still confused from everything happening, so I didn’t let it get to me, but now I was sure this was real.

  Might as well have some fun.

  “You wanna go fishing?” I asked.

  “Straight to the point! Actually, I was goin’ to give this to ya.” He presented to me a simple bamboo rod and talked a bit about himself and the valley.

  I gladly took it, then we both started to fish in the sea. People online often talked about how hard the fishing minigame was, but personally, I’ve always found it pretty easy.

  That’s why it sucked that fishing in here was normal.

  No minigames, just looking at the sea. Willy, fortunately, taught me some basics, and with plenty of time, I caught several fish. Halibuts, anchovies, sardines, and so on. I could put them all in my pocket, and they would fit as if there was some magic space inside it. I did not question it – I was quite literally sent to a video game world, and this was one of the least weird things I had seen.

  After some fishing, I visited the town and greeted the people around. Even though everyone looked like normal humans, I still recognized everyone. Though they wore somewhat different shirts than in the game. Lewis definitely wore different clothing from yesterday.

  I checked the calendar in front of Pierre’s shop and the Help Wanted board. Linus wanted a horseradish by tomorrow, and I would give it to him.

  Linus was one of the people I definitely wanted to befriend.

  For now, though…

  On my way to Linus, I encountered Demetrius. He was a nerdy brown-skinned man, looking like he was in his thirties. Husband to Robin.

  “Greetings, I am Demetrius. You must be the farmer who had settled himself not long ago,” he said.

  “Yes, it’s me.” I decided to try something. “You know, I have a pretty strange cave on my farm. Maybe you want to check it out today?”

  “Uhm… I would love to?” Demetrius scratched his hair nervously.

  Ah right. It was definitely weird when a stranger came up to you and offered to take you to his cave.

  “I mean, you can do so whenever you feel like. No pressure,” I said.

  “Understood.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I looked all around me and tried to find any wild horseradish. Only leeks and daffodils, though the latter could be a gift for Haley.

  To be honest, I was considering minmaxing. What I was doing right now was not very efficient – I was just walking around and doing random stuff. But… why bother? The most fun I’ve ever had in the game was when I first started, and I just did whatever I felt like. No point in becoming a trillionaire in a year, I would just take it slow, and do what I wanted.

  Besides, I didn’t even know how much of this was different from the game. Death could be very much real, for example.

  There was a yellow tent laid out on a small hill, and in front of it sat an older man with a large gray beard who looked homeless. Linus.

  “Hey there.” I walked up to him.

  Linus looked pretty evasive. “Are you here to ridicule me?”

  Ah, right. That’s what he is like at the start. “No, I just moved in and wanted to greet everyone.”

  “I see.”

  I let the conversation end here. No luck finding wild horseradish in these areas, so I looked in the opposite direction – the forest south of the farm.

  There, I saw Leah walking around. She was a young redhead, a bit similar to Robin, but definitely prettier… in my totally subjective opinion, of course.

  “Hello, it’s nice to meet you. You picked a good time to move here,” she said.

  I didn’t, but whatever. “Hey, I’m John.”

  “I’m Leah,” she said.

  Nothing else for a few seconds. It felt kind of awkward until Leah broke the silence.

  “The landscape around here gives me a lot of ideas – it’s like a sculpture itself. I make art as a hobby. Being a farmer feels like a very rewarding profession. You get to make delicious food for everyone! But, well, you’re probably busy. Bye.” She walked off.

  The way she talked just now was awfully similar to the game. In fact, everyone talked quite similarly, at least from what I could remember. It wasn’t the exact same, though. I hope they weren’t actually NPCs or anything.

  Eventually, I found the wild horseradish and headed off to Linus. By now, the sun was starting to set. Time here seemed to move just like in real life.

  I met Haley on the way. She was a blonde in her twenties, wearing a blue shirt and a pink skirt. Why was almost everyone in here so attractive?

  “Oh? You’re that new farmer boy everyone’s been talking about,” she said.

  “Yes, I’m John,” I said.

  “I’m Haley. Hmm.” She looked me up and down. “If it wasn’t for those horrendous clothes, you might actually be… Ah, nevermind. They aren’t that horrible.”

  Okay, that was definitely different from normal.

  “Sure? Well, here you go, a present.” I pulled out a daffodil from my magical-fuckery pocket.

  Haley’s eyes widened. “Uh, thanks?” She took the daffodil and didn’t say anything else. She shrugged and left to do her own thing.

  Her sister, Emily, didn’t look a lot like her. She had blue hair, was pale, and looked just a tad crazy.

  Well, now that I had the horseradish, it was time to go to Linus. It took way longer for me to reach north of the valley than it would have playing the game, and by now the sun had almost set. Linus was tending to his campfire and jumped up a bit when he heard me walking from behind.

  “Oh, it’s you… wait, is it?” he muttered when he saw my gift. “Oh, it’s for me?”

  “Yes, you wanted one, right?” I asked.

  “Yes, thank you. Here you go.” Linus handed me some coins in recompense. “But, you didn’t have to come here today, especially since it’s so late.”

  Nah, I still had plenty of time before 2 AM.

  I said goodbye to Linus and headed to the farm. Once I was back, I just foraged and broke some rocks before going to sleep. I still had plenty of energy and wanted to see how much rest I would get from just a single night of sleep.

  Thinking over what to do tomorrow, I lay on the bed and closed my eyes.

  When I woke up the next day, for some reason, I felt I had gotten much better at fishing.

  ---

  What a strange person, Linus thought.

  He had trouble finding horseradish lately and had a powerful craving for it. Truth be told, he did not expect that anyone in the valley would help him, and especially not this young man who moved in the previous day.

  Linus hoped that the young man really was as good a person as he presented himself to be. For now, he prepared supper for himself – it would be a waste to let such a good piece of horseradish go to waste.

  ---

  Haley was pretty bored, living in this small town.

  She had hoped that this new farmer who arrived in town would shake things up, but after seeing him, she decided that he was just another boring person.

  He’s lucky I like daffodils, though. Haley glanced over at the farmer boy’s present, lying on a table nearby. She shook her head and prepared to go to bed – she had to get her beauty sleep, after all.

  ---

  Willy finished his fishin’ for the day. It was night already, and the ol’ sea looked as beautiful as always. He walked back to his shack and unloaded his haul. No customers today, real shame, but the young lad seemed real nice.

  Hopefully, he’ll bring tons of coin with him. Willy thought with a smile.

  ---

  Leah worked on her wooden sculpture and was very satisfied with how it looked.

  Granted, any other person would see it as complete junk, but for her, it was an expression of herself. Briefly, she wondered what John would think about it.

  Maybe she would ask him tomorrow.